


Laying Claim

by RcA



Series: Carnivores [4]
Category: Big Bang (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Animal Traits, Creature Fic, Established Relationship, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Hurt/Comfort, Knotting, M/M, Possessive Behavior, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-27 13:01:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8402689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RcA/pseuds/RcA
Summary: Daesung has the strength to fight. But here, lost in his musings, he had lowered his guard and forgotten his one vulnerability in this land he and his pack have called home for many seasons: that wolves are carnal creatures, he is a warm, fit body, and he is alone.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place long after [New Heights](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7884583) and very shortly before [Carnivores](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7731763).
> 
> I'm sorry that I have gone and written about Daesung suffering this kind of assault yet _again_. But know that I am aiming to convey something here, something beyond just... gratuitous rape. This began as a short fic (around 1k words jotted down in my phone) that popped into my head one day at work while I was in the process of writing [Dreams Like Ashes Float Away](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8184938). I don't even remember what triggered it, but as these things always do, the more I dug into it the more it grew. Please heed the warnings, and thank you always for reading.
> 
> **Disclaimer:** This is a fictional work based on the public personas of real people, over whom I make no claim and to whom I mean no harm.

 

 

 

Where they have made their home werewolves sit comfortably at the top of the food chain. This is a fact for which Daesung is infinitely grateful-- what a nightmare it must be to live as prey! He rests comfortably enough in the knowledge that he has little to fear from the abundance of wildlife he and his packmates share these lands with, most of them simple creatures with motives that are readily anticipated and easily understood. Prey animals recognize wolves like him as a threat and avoid him at all costs. Even the predators know his strength and, except in times of desperation, tend to keep their distance.

Incapable of reason, animals operate solely on instinct. It is a free and entirely uncomplicated existence that Daesung sometimes envies.

And then there are humans. But while the presence of even a single human, especially one that is armed, is ordinarily enough to send Daesung and his packmates running, such sightings are exceedingly rare this far out. They have made their home in a place distant enough from human settlements that as long as they remain vigilant, close encounters with that fraction of their mixed heritage are mercifully few and far between.

And so, in spite of his flighty nature, rather unusual for a wolf, Daesung knows and appreciates that he has little to truly fear here. After all, nothing can match a wolf's strength and cunning but his own kind.

Unlike animals, werewolves can be fickle creatures, their animal and human blood blending in mysterious ways and triggering behavioral patterns that are difficult at best to predict. Daesung regards Seunghyun and himself as prime examples of this phenomenon; both are wolves beyond a doubt, yet as individuals, he and his mate are as different as night and day.

And even though Daesung is every bit a wolf himself, with all the defining characteristics of his declining kind-- the furred tail, the sharp teeth and talons he can tuck away when not needed, the appetite for flesh and nothing else-- he has no way of knowing, of _truly_ knowing, what another wolf wants until he or she acts.

On a primal level wolves are creatures of action. Act first, think later. And that is where things get interesting.

One moment Daesung is peacefully dozing in the shade of a mesquite, the summer heat  enticing him into a shallow sleep. The next, something-- some _one_ \-- tackles him from the side, taking him to the ground so hard the sudden impact punches the air from his lungs.

"Get off!" he shrieks when he comes to, his voice breaking as he struggles violently under the bulk of his attacker. But the man on his back-- larger, stronger, frightfully purpose-driven-- only bears down on Daesung harder, crushing him into the grass with his greater mass and weight until he can barely breathe. His clothes lay in tatters around him, the other's sharp claws effortlessly reducing them to ribbons, and where the tips of said claws grazed his skin in the process Daesung bleeds lightly.

The problem with his kind is that once a wolf has set his mind and body to a task it becomes next to impossible to deter him from it. This is a hard lesson Daesung had learned to live with, a law he must often abide by in his dealings with wolves, and sometimes, such as now... a grim truth he must suffer.

Brute force is well understood among wolves, a universal language as natural and intuitive as his body's reaction to pain or pleasure. Just as Daesung flinches away from pain and pushes toward pleasure, it did not need to be learned. There is nothing to misinterpret in displays of power, and strength is a speech all its own, its wordless message louder and clearer than anything he might say, an expression of intent more serious than any combination of sounds his mouth might make.

Daesung has the strength to fight. When his first instinct to flee from danger fails, he can turn and fight to defend himself if he must. He will, and he does... But here he was caught unaware. Lost in his musings, Daesung had lowered his guard and forgotten his one vulnerability in this land he and his pack have called home for many seasons: that wolves are carnal creatures, he is a warm, fit body, and he is alone.

Sometimes it is as simple as that. Now his negligence will cost him.

And so he cries out in pain, convulses there on the ground as the wolf atop him shoves his tail aside and forces his way into him from behind. He grits his teeth and curls tight fists into the grass, venting his pain by ripping the blades from the earth viciously, roots and all, while the other wolf takes what he wants from him without care. Without ever even pausing to peel off his own clothes, even; the rough denim of his open jeans abrades Daesung's soft backside, the zip's metal teeth snagging on his skin here and there as his attacker ruts wildly and recklessly over him, against him, _into_ him.

_Fuck_ , Daesung curses silently, his lips forming the word's shape, ready to release it to the air-- _it hurts_. Has it ever hurt this badly? But all that comes out is a whine of pain, low and long and suffering, when the other's cock pierces him again, _again_ , **_again_** , with thrusts that are short and sharp and stabbing.

Daesung is no stranger to pain... but his body was not ready for this kind of assault. He feels like he is being taken apart one snap of the other man's hips at a time. He and Seunghyun are not known for gentle couplings, but even when Seunghyun forgets himself he does at least take care to avoid hurting him beyond what he can handle. By now Daesung has taught Seunghyun how best to give it to him, in their years of intimacy has instructed his mate on exactly how he likes to be fucked; hard and fast is high on the list, but it has to be done _right_.

And to Daesung's growing gratification, Seunghyun is a quick study, as eager to please as he is keen to seek his own pleasure. It is a give and take that works perfectly for them. A language all their own, a learned dialect of skin and sweat and bodies that have come to know precisely what the other wants and needs inside and out.

This is... This is not it.

This wolf does not know him like Seunghyun does. It's been so long... Daesung had forgotten how painful sex could be when his partner does not care about his satisfaction-- or his safety. As his attacker moves over him, rocking in and out of him swiftly and invasively, like spearing his length into Daesung's body at full tilt, Daesung worries that he is being pried open instead with _claws_ , not cock.

He breathes through it, squeezes his eyes shut and wills himself to bear it just a little longer, panting through the pain of the other wolf pushing past sensitive skin and striking ruthlessly at his soft insides. An assortment of shallow wounds from teeth and claws scattered across his back, neck, and sides combine to weave a web of pain that pulls and stretches with every move... But Daesung knows he will get through this.

Because he has survived this kind of assault in years past. It has been a long time, certainly, but he has managed it before, and he will again.

All Daesung can do now is minimize the damage, manage the pain, and turn his thoughts ahead to that precise moment when the other wolf has taken his fill of him. Daesung bows his head to the grass and waits impatiently for the man over him to tug his spent cock from his abused body, to lift his weight off his aching back and hips, and to leave Daesung where he lies as he rises to him feet and simply continues on his way.

He'll be fine. He'll be okay. Daesung hurts terribly but he is strong enough to pick himself up and make his way back to where he belongs: inside the protective circle of his pack. Inside the circle of Seunghyun's arms.

He needs Seunghyun. He needs his mate. He needs him now.

With a deep groan the man atop him finishes at last, going still over him and pulling him back until they are flush against each other; Daesung's nose crinkles in disgust at the thought of the other wolf's come inside him. But that can be dealt with later. Now he prepares himself for that final tug and slide, readies himself for that awful, slick pulling sensation of the other's length leaving him for the last time, wanting to be done with it all despite knowing how it will hurt.

Daesung catches his breath and waits.

However, what he feels is not a _pull_ but a new _pressure_ , like something growing and swelling up inside. It is a familiar sensation, and it is the absolute last thing Daesung wants right now.

He cannot allow this wolf to knot him.

He can't. He _won't_. Never again from anyone but Seunghyun. The knot is the consummation of their bond, recognized by wolves everywhere. For this one to lock his body with Daesung's in this manner is to claim him as his own.

But Daesung already belongs. He is _Seunghyun's_ , as Seunghyun is his. They belong to each other. He cannot lie back and let this continue-- he will not! Suddenly panicked, Daesung resumes his struggles anew.

" _No_ ," he yelps, whipping around and bending himself nearly in half as he makes one final, desperate bid to force the other out of him. He gets a hand flat against the man's hip and _shoves_... but his awkward position affords him little leverage and there is no force behind it.

He receives a face full of dirt and grass and sudden, blinding pain for his effort, the man taking him cruelly by the hair and driving him back to the ground with no effort at all.

"Why are you even--" Daesung splutters, "Haven't you already-- _don't!_ "

"Shut up," he hears above the rush of blood in his ears as he is held face-down to the earth. His nose stings sharply and his eyes burn with fresh tears of pain, but all of it pales against the feel of his heart leaping into his throat as it dawns on him what this could mean for him and his future.

He must stop this. This cannot happen!

"Please," Daesung pleads, digging claws into the soil before him in an effort to drag himself away, off of the ball of hard flesh he can feel quickly becoming lodged just inside him. "Please don't do this!" If he can't stop this, can't escape this, Seunghyun might... Seunghyun will...

Mated or not, wolves are highly territorial creatures. If he is like most of his kind, Seunghyun will not take kindly to the scent of another clinging to Daesung upon his return. There is the possibility that he might... He could...

Daesung can't bear to finish the thought.

"I have a mate," Daesung says in a voice choked with grief.

"Oh?" He feels hot breath over the back of his neck as the other man leans in close, as if inspecting something.  "Oh yeah, I see it now. Few marks here and there. Nothing much." Against Daesung's skin he murmurs, "Why's that? Your so-called mate must not be too concerned about holding onto you."

"What?" Daesung squirms away as teeth find one of Seunghyun's favorite spots by his hairline and begin to worry at his skin, nibbling over a tiny patch that feels bruised already from Seunghyun's ministrations just the night before. "That's not-- I don't think you don't understand.”

"I understand just fine. I just don't care," the man growls from behind him. His fingers tighten again in the tangle of his hair, and Daesung tenses at the hint of claws scraping over his scalp. "I found you here. I put you on the ground fair and square. This is my right," he says in a voice like gravel and slings an arm across his hips, securing Daesung to him while his knot continues to develop, stretching Daesung ever wider.

"Do you even know what you're doing? What this means?" The words tumble out of him, no time to pause and think. "If you do this, my pack will-- my mate--"

"I know exactly what I'm doing. And as I've already told you, I just don't fucking care." Daesung cringes in pain again as his head is shaken-- he is so _weary_ of always being dragged around by his hair! "Now be quiet and _hold still_. This shouldn't take long."

A powerful sense of deja vu settles over Daesung then, spreading through his limbs and leaving him lightheaded. He has been here before, was once in this exact position as he appealed to his attacker with a strikingly similar set of pleas, that day Seunghyun had come along and inadvertently claimed him.

How did he and Seunghyun go from that to what they are now? They have come so far together. He isn't ready to do it all over again.

"No," Daesung laments and pulls away again. "Seunghyun, Jiyong," he gasps out, this time throwing his whole body into it. "Youngbae, Seungri," he pants, hoping that fear and adrenaline will override the pain just enough that maybe... maybe it isn't too late...

He doesn't make it far before an intense, fiery agony where he and the other wolf are linked stops him cold, the knot catching and holding against his hole and shocking him still. He can do nothing but shiver through the aftershocks as the pain skips like streaks of lightning up his front and down his legs, screaming out signals that demand he _stop immediately_ whatever he is doing before he deals his body irreparable harm.

It is too late. The knot is fully formed. They can't part. He can't get away. Daesung is stuck like this, pinned on his belly under a strange wolf who does not respect his bond with Seunghyun, every muscle in him taut with excruciating pain as the seconds tick by. He feels stuffed full in an appalling way, anchored there under the other's sweltering heat, _trapped_.

"Shit," the other wolf curses into his shoulder, "What are you trying to do-- maim us both? I said don't fucking move. Try that again and I'll make sure you'll regret it."

Daesung barely registers his harsh words, the feel of the other's heat covering him again as he settles over him fully far outweighed by the pain of his heart breaking inside the bruised cage of his ribs. If he returns to Seunghyun bearing another's scent, Seunghyun might turn him away entirely. At the thought a sorrowful sound claws its way up from somewhere deep within, a cry of distress too swift to suppress.

"Fucking hell. It's not the end of the world," the man snaps at him.

No, it is not the end of the world... but it is the end of something. Daesung feels the frail hope of a continued life with Seunghyun and the rest of the pack slipping through his hands as freely as grains of sand escaping through the gaps between his fingers.

Another wolf has claimed him.

 

 

\--

 

 

It is some time later when Daesung sits up-- haltingly, slowly-- and looks himself over, assessing the damage with a quiet calm that reveals nothing of how he feels.

He is alone again in the grove, his only company his troubled thoughts and stinging wounds.  The other wolf had up and left him where he lay the moment his knot had shrunk enough for them to separate. It baffles Daesung. What had been the point of it all, if not to take him...?

He aches all over, as much inside as out. The wounds across his battered body are a clear testimony to what took place here. Everyone will know what happened to him the moment they lay eyes on him. To all of his pack, and certainly to his mate... there will be no need to explain.

Daesung is not ashamed of what he has just endured. Why should he be? He was attacked without warning. He fought back. He lost. In such an outcome there is little shame, only pain. This is life as he knows it for one of his kind; this is the world in which he lives. Daesung reminds himself that the pain the attack is only temporary. He is hurt, but not grievously so. His body heals quickly, and his wounds will soon be nothing more than distant memories.

So he counts his blessings, but it offers him little comfort and fails to quell the dread rising in him at the confrontation with Seunghyun to come.

 

 

\--

 

 

Seunghyun soon finds him. Daesung had known it would not be long before he set out after him; the other wolf gives him his space when he wants it, but never for very long.

"Daesung! What--"

He skids to a stop suddenly, face pinched up in a conflicted expression, and Daesung knows what he is feeling. Knows that Seunghyun's eyes are telling him one thing while his nose is telling him another: that the man on the ground before him, naked and hurt and refusing to raise his head and meet his gaze, is his Daesung. And yet... he is not. Not anymore.

Daesung can't look at him. He can't face his mate-- _his mate_ \-- or the rejection he knows is sure to come. So he hangs his head and furiously counts the blades of grass poking stiffly from under his scraped hands as Seunghyun stalks around him as if in slow motion, examining him with a peculiar apathy, taking in his disheveled state and his assortment of surface injuries with a heavy gaze. Daesung knows what he must look like, covered head to toe in shallow scratches and bite marks, his skin stained with smudges of dirt and dried smears of blood. In his hair there are pine needles and bits of cut grass that he has not bothered to brush out.

His appearance says enough, but it is how he now _smells_ that fills him with anxiety. Where Seunghyun's strong scent once dominated, another has taken its place. Seunghyun's nostrils flare as he circles him warily, testing this new scent that clings to him, the stench of the other wolf's claim on him as sticky and syrupy as tree sap.

To Seunghyun's keen sense of smell, Daesung may as well be a stranger. Daesung digs already filthy fingers into the soil as the thought sends a fresh wave of pain through him. He is not ready to leave this pack; he never wants to. They are the best family he has ever had, far more precious to him even than the family that raised him. He had even begun to believe that this was it for him, that he and Seunghyun would never part, and the others-- Jiyong, Youngbae, and even their newest and youngest addition to the pack, Seungri-- were his sworn brothers until the end of his days.

He cannot bear to lift his head and watch as Seunghyun walks away from him. He would never recover.

But Seunghyun does not turn and leave as he expects. From behind he approaches, standing near enough that Daesung can feel the heat of his legs against his lower back. Daesung does not move, afraid even to breathe as Seunghyun drops to the ground and touches fingers lightly to the small of his back. Then, with no more warning than that, he skirts around his tail and dips a finger between Daesung's cheeks, searching, seeking.

" _Ngh_ ," Daesung flinches hard as the pads of Seunghyun's fingers skim over his hole. He knows without looking that the other's hand comes away wet with come.

Seunghyun is silent behind him. Daesung hears the grass crunching under him as he seems to settle on his knees, followed by the pull of a zipper and the rustling of a heavy fabric... his pants? A moment later he feels the other's breath upon his back, hot and heavy and coming faster as he seems to take himself in hand and rapidly goes to work on himself, entirely solo but for a hand pressed solidly to Daesung's broad back. Against his sweat-cooled skin, Seunghyun's palm feels scorching hot.

Finally, Daesung turns to ask, "What are you doing?"

With a firm but gentle touch Seunghyun nudges Daesung's head away until he is facing forward again. Then, with not a word, the hand on his back is pushing him, urging him forward, encouraging Daesung into an all-too-familiar position on hands and knees.

_Oh_. But... Now? Here? Why?

"Seunghyun," Daesung gasps, "Seunghyun, what-- _oh, fuck_ ," he groans as the other enters him, the sound not one of surprise or pleasure but of _pain_. Even though Seunghyun pushes into him slowly, more painstakingly than ever before, the blunt head of his cock feels like a burning ember breaching him precisely where he has already suffered so much.

With a puff of heated air over the back of his neck, Seunghyun begins to move inside him, straining against him in clipped motions as if he is simultaneously hurrying yet holding himself back. Daesung knows this erratic way of moving; Seunghyun is close already, was probably almost there before he even entered him.

_Why are you doing this?_ Daesung wants to ask, unable to help the way his face twists up in fresh pain. Seunghyun knows what has just happened to him. He must know how he is already hurting, must realize that with every move, no matter how small, he is hurting him further.

"Shh," Seunghyun says into the back of his ear. It is the first sound from him since he had first laid eyes on Daesung in his beaten state. He moves only as much as he needs to, but still it is too much, too soon. Seunghyun shushes him, easing his cock in and out of him carefully like never before.

This is not how they do this. This is not how he and Seunghyun fuck.

"It hurts," Daesung finally says in a small voice.

"I know, I know it hurts, I'm sorry," Seunghyun groans like he's the one in pain. "I don't _want_ to hurt you, I just--" He grunts and drops his head to Daesung's shoulder, his forehead coming to rest on smooth skin, largely unblemished but for a few faded scars where Seunghyun's teeth have found and tasted him, something he has taken to doing lately when he has Daesung under him. "I'm going as slowly as I can."

But why now? Daesung wants to complain, holding himself stiff as Seunghyun's girth stretches him, fucking into him where he already feels tender and raw. Couldn't this have waited until later?

...Or is it just that he wanted to have him one last time before he goes?

Seunghyun presses into him deeply and stills, uncharacteristically silent as he comes. Then he pulls Daesung closer, tugs him back by the hips until he is fully seated on Seunghyun's lap, any remaining space between them eliminated. Trembling around the feel of the other man in him, Daesung fights a losing battle against tears at what feels like a betrayal.

Why is Seunghyun so intent on hurting him like this?

He is not left wondering for long after that; Seunghyun's body soon speaks for him. When the other's knot begins to take form, Daesung understands at last, the flash of sudden insight so swift and sound that it leaves him breathless.

Seunghyun is not releasing him. He is _taking him back_.

"Oh," Daesung says simply, the word little more than an exhale with his voice softly trailing behind it.

As he so often does, Seunghyun has defied his expectations. Seunghyun could not stand the stench of another wolf on him, but where Daesung had feared he would refuse him, Seunghyun instead reclaims him. So compelling was his need to re-establish his claim that he could not wait even a moment longer to set to work removing the reek from his mate's skin.

Seunghyun's scent on him has always been strong, for reasons he could never explain. Daesung has worn the other's scent for so long, it feels as natural on his body as his own.

And so, pushing past the pain-- now embracing it, even-- Daesung shoves back against Seunghyun and wills his body to open further around the other's steadily swelling knot. He finds that the pain seems less severe when he is the one in control of it.

"Seunghyun," he gasps out wetly, "I wasn't able to stop it. I'm so sorry--"

" _Don't_ ," Seunghyun quiets him. "Don't apologize. None of this was your fault," he says, sounding as agonized as Daesung feels. "I know I'm hurting you, but just... let me do this. Let me make you mine again."

And with that, Daesung cannot hold it back any longer. His throat closes up with a sudden surge of emotion and he sobs, not in pain this time, but in such complete, all-encompassing _relief_.

"I thought for sure--"

"No, stop. _Stop it_ ," Seunghyun cuts him off again brusquely. "Whatever you thought, I don't want to hear it. No one is taking you away from me. No one, you hear me? Not that easily. Not ever. And if they try, I will _take you back_ ," he growls with a jealousy that Daesung has come to recognize in him as second nature.

"Not ever?"

"Never."

Daesung bows his head and wrangles back tears, his vision blurring and eyes burning with the effort of keeping them contained. He thought he would have to start all over again from scratch, building up a new life from nothing with a strange wolf he did not know and did not wish to.

He never wants to leave this pack. And here, with this act, Seunghyun is telling him he does not have to.

From his position on the other's lap, Seunghyun's knot locked firmly inside of him should feel terribly wrong after what he has just been through. Yet even through the discomfort, Daesung now finds it the most welcome thing in the world. His body acknowledges Seunghyun's as readily as if it was part of his own; to accept him inside still hurts, yes, but he could never reject him.

Just as Seunghyun could never reject him. He sees that now.

"Daesung, Daesung," Seunghyun says, nuzzling into the soft place under Daesung's jaw as his arms tighten around his middle in an embrace that is fixed and unyielding. Just as Daesung wants it to be.

"You're mine. I will not give you up so easily."

"Seunghyun..." What else can he say?

"So don't be so quick to give up on _me_ ," Seunghyun finishes, and the pleading note in his voice reaches into Daesung to wrench painfully at his already battered and bruised heart.

"That you would think even for a _second_ \--" With the hand not around his middle Seunghyun strokes over his side, palms at the soft place between his hip and ribs. "I... I know things were rough in the beginning. We got off to a rocky start. I know that I--" He seems to choke on the words. Daesung waits patiently for him to recover. "I should have been more careful. I was terrible to you."

"Seunghyun, stop."

"I can't change the way this began," he rushes ahead. "I can't, and sometimes it fucking kills me, but if I could... just know that I would."

After all, what happened here today... It isn't so different from how he and Seunghyun had first met. Certainly not ideal, but not exactly unusual circumstances for wolves like themselves. Even so, Daesung considers what has developed between them to be a rare phenomenon, like lightning which seldom strikes in the same place twice. That with the passage of time, they have somehow gone from there to here seems to Daesung nothing short of a miracle.

"Seunghyun..." Daesung says on a sigh, the other's name sounding wispy and insubstantial as it leaves his lips. Careful of where and Seunghyun meet, he reaches back gingerly and cups a hand around the back of his mate's head, his fingers catching in the other's hair, shorter than his but just as shaggy.

"Seunghyun, stop. _Stop_. You don't have to say anything about that. Really."

"I do."

"You _don't_. It's behind us. That... That isn't us anymore."

Seunghyun puts his cheek against Daesung's and seems to sulk. "I just want to give you everything."

"I know you do," Daesung replies, impossibly fond. "But this... This is enough." Daesung clenches around Seunghyun's knot, wincing just a bit as he considers how the other's girth stretches him, forcing him so wide he feels he could not possibly open for him any further even if he tried.

But by now he knows better than to believe that.

Seunghyun is always pushing his limits, nudging Daesung along, raising him higher, carrying him farther, pushing and pressing him longer and harder to the point where he swears he can withstand no more... until he realizes that he _can_. Under the other's constant urging Daesung has embarked on a journey of self-discovery more meaningful than he knows how to express.

As Daesung reflects quietly on this, Seunghyun's hands are everywhere, roaming up and down his arms and over bare legs, fingers skirting his sides, splaying across the muscles of his chest, and tracing the sharp ridges of his collarbones. Under the petting Daesung relaxes and lets the other wolf explore him to his heart's content.

He sighs with a kind of light satisfaction as Seunghyun's hands dive low. They trace the sparse line of hair down his belly to the base of his cock, fondling him briefly, then dip underneath to cup his balls in a warm, rough palm. Not to arouse him, but simply to hold him. Sometimes it seems to Daesung that Seunghyun needs only to take him in hand-- whatever part of him he can close his fingers around-- and hold him, skin to skin, trading body heat until the space between them becomes too hot to bear.

And even then, he is loathe to separate.

Wolves are tactile creatures, yes, but Seunghyun's compulsion to touch him is unrivaled. When Seunghyun's hands find him, calloused palms fitting reverently over all his curves and edges, Daesung feels thoroughly defended. _Guarded_. Safe in the knowledge that, were it possible, Seunghyun would gladly unfold himself to cover every inch of Daesung's exposed skin. Without a second thought he would tip over and pour his body out, spilling over Daesung until he is coated in a protective film of, well, himself. If that is what it would take to keep Daesung safe and whole and happy, Seunghyun would.

How had he ever doubted Seunghyun's commitment to him? His old pack had left him for dead when another had come along and claimed him, but to compare the strength of his bond with Seunghyun to what he had with them is like attempting to measure a shallow pond against a vast ocean, the depth of its waters unfathomable, its distant shores far beyond sight. It cannot be done. Daesung feels foolish for ever trying.

"Is this really enough? It can't be," Seunghyun says into his shoulder, then the nape of his neck, and soon the tip of his nose finds that sensitive spot under his ear that always, without fail, sends a thrill of delight racing up Daesung's spine. It pulls him out of his thoughts and back to the present.

"It's more than enough," Daesung breathes, craning his head to one side, allowing Seunghyun better access to what he seeks.

"I can't just... I need to do more. I just don't know what," Seunghyun slurs, sucking and biting lightly at his skin as he goes. "What can I do? Tell me what you need-- no, tell me what you _want_. Anything."

_Anything_ , Daesung thinks. _Anything at all?_ He knows already that Seunghyun would give him anything in his power to attain, and for anything outside of his ability, well, he would at least make a damn impressive effort. But Daesung is not difficult to please. He contents himself with very little, and in his heart he knows as surely as he has known anything that there is only one thing he wants from Seunghyun, the one thing that he knows in his very core he is destined to have.

He wants to spend the rest of his life with this man.

Seunghyun is _it_ for him. Something in Seunghyun completes something in Daesung. This far into the wilderness together, this deep into the dense underbrush of their bond, Daesung cannot envision a way out of what he has with the other man. All his memories of their time together, every shared moment between them-- the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the gift of their pleasure and the burden of their pain-- are thick vines creeping across the path behind him, sealing the way and making impossible the thought of ever turning back.

Daesung cannot imagine a life without Seunghyun. He hopes with all his heart that he never has to.

"Daesung." Seunghyun's hand slides again down his spine, slipping deftly between his cheeks just as before, but this time he stops just short of where they are tied, to Daesung's immense relief. "What else can I give you besides this?"

Like a fresh sapling maturing into a great tree, this once fragile thing between them has grown skyward, spreading its flowering branches around them and its roots within them, their love locking them together irrevocably. Daesung hopes it stands tall and strong until the end of their days, whenever that may be. He wants to be by Seunghyun's side unto his dying breath.

"Keep me," Daesung answers him promptly, without hesitation. He tips his head back onto Seunghyun's shoulder and rests it there, giving all of himself over to the other, to have and to hold. "Just keep me. That's all I want from you."

Seunghyun is quiet for a long time. Daesung takes his silence as his cue to lift his hands and thread his fingers through Seunghyun's. He squeezes the other man's hand hard, with more force than usual. He needs Seunghyun to know he means it.

In reply, Seunghyun flips his hand around so that they are palm to palm and squeezes back harder, his grip borderline painful, as it well should be. If there is one lesson Daesung has learned by now, it is that Seunghyun's sincerity often hurts.

"I can do that," Seunghyun pledges, and for Daesung that is enough.

 

 

 

 


End file.
